The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja
by Pjac the fighter
Summary: Life is short, most of us never live it to the full... But that doesn't stop us from trying. I fulfilled my dreams and defeated my inner turmoil. Who am I? Naruto Uzumaki. Rokudaime Hokage, Jailer of Kyuubi no Yoko and Konoha's No.1 Ninja! Dattebayo!
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Naruto...**

**Enjoy**

Life is short... Most of us never live it to the full.

But that doesn't stop us trying.

I'm lucky because of the sights I've seen and the things I've done.

I controlled what resides in me and fulfilled my greatest dream. And then I made a new dream.

This is my story.

Who am I you ask...

Well my name is Uzumaki Naruto, Rokudaime Hokage, Jailer of the Kyuubi and Konoha's Number One Ninja! **Dattebayo!**

**The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja**

Chronicles of the Rokudaime Hokage

Chapter 1

**Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni**

"NARUTO!"

A blonde streak flashed across the rooftops of Konohagakure no Sato in the early afternoon, on a bright summer day. Said blonde streak seemed to be kitted out in an orange and black cloak and a black ANBU uniform with a Jonin vest and what looked like a large black hat with the kanji for _Fire_ inscribed on it.

Not too far behind him a large cloud of dust was moving rapidly through the streets below, with yells and shouts from the local population regularly being heard, as well as many curses being hurled at the blonde.

The dust cloud was formed from the destruction caused by the former apprentice to Tsunade no Densetsu no Sannin, and the best medical nin in the Ninja world, Haruno Sakura, or as she was known now, Uzumaki Sakura, wife of the Rokudaime Hokage and currently ready to kill her husband for once again skipping out on his paperwork,

"_Kami, he's almost as bad as Tsunade-shishou! When I get my hands on him..." _Sakura growled in her mind. She had enough to deal with in Konoha General Hospital without having to deal with her lazy husband who was probably just going off to mess around with the other male members of the Konoha 11 who weren't off on missions.

"Sakura-channnnn! Don't be angry! It hurts when you're angry!" Naruto called as he tried to outrun his wife. He had left a few shadow clones in the office to make sure some work got done but they had obviously gotten into a fight and had dissipated leaving no one in the Hokage's office when Sakura had come to leave off requisition forms from the hospital.

"_Man this really is going to hurt when she catches me. Damn why couldn't this be in a few more weeks when I finally manage to figure out how to work Dad's Hiraishin no Jutsu." _Naruto mused. He had found out a few years after taking up the mantle of Hokage that his father had left a sealed scroll that could only be opened by one of his descendants. And of course as soon as Naruto had found out about this he put all his energy into deciphering it. He had learned a few things but nothing that he hadn't already discovered with his own experimentation using the Rasengan. That was until he saw the words _Hiraishin no Jutsu_. And so this became a passion that took up more and more of his time until he was sneaking out of the Hokage Mansion just to try to practice the seals and chakra control for the _Hiraishin_.

Unfortunately for Naruto, Sakura thought he was just goofing off and her fist was now on a collision course with his head, pumped with supercharged chakra.

BOOM

The Rokudaime Hokage was sent flying through the air and landed with a thump outside the Ichiraku Ramen Stand.

"Looks like Naruto was goofing off again Ojii-san," Ichiraku Ayame said to her father as Naruto raised himself out of the crater he had formed with his landing and made his way over to the ramen stand.

"Haha, the usual Naruto-kun?" Teuchi boomed as the blonde walked under the awning and placed himself in his usual seat.

"Hai, Teuchi-san. And make it a double portion. I've got a killer headache now thanks to Sakura-chan..." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, for once it wasn't a nervous reflex. Sakura had really put a lot of chakra into that one.

"I'm sure if she did it there was a perfectly good reason, Naruto-kun. It's not like you didn't deserve it now!" Ayame giggled as she prepared the meal.

"Ayame-chan! That's not fair! I wasn't goofing off! I was doing important research!" Naruto tried to claim.

"Oh ho now. _Research!_ Isn't that what Jiraya-sama used to call his perving, Naruto-kun!" A voice uttered from behind the blonde with anger dripping from their words.

Naruto gulped audibly and forced a grin as he turned to face the voice, "Sakura-ch..."

"Don't you dare say that Uzumaki Naruto... You are in big trouble, Mister Rokudaime Hokage. Have you decided to skip meeting up with Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Lee and Sai and decided to pick up where your master began! I bet Kakashi bribed you to start writing those blasted _Icha Icha _books again didn't you and you needed some time to _research_ the material," Sakura blasted him as he stood stock still. This was worse than normal. Usually she berated him, whacked him over the head and then everything was fine. But this time she didn't let up. Something else was going on but before he could get to the bottom of that he needed to explain.

He placed his hand over her mouth to stop her from talking. She looked at him with her emerald eyes burning with fury, "Sakura, the reason I have not been in the office much is not because I've been off goofing with the guys, and it's not because Kakashi offered to do 10 S-class missions for free if I wrote a sequel to _Icha Icha_. It's none of those things... although Kakashi did offer that," Naruto chuckled to himself before continuing, "The real reason is I discovered some of Dad's stuff and one thing was a scroll containing some of his techniques," Sakura's eyes widened at this revelation and her jaw dropped. The Yondaime Hokage had created some of the greatest ninjutsu ever seen in the ninja world and Kami knows how many more he created and never showed in public.

Naruto continued, "I started to look through it and there wasn't much I hadn't already discovered with things like the Rasengan and the Toad summons but then I came across something... _Hiraishin._"

"I've been sneaking off these past few months to try and learn the _Hiraishin_," Sakura glared at him when he said 'months' but then turned to him and kissed his head.

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun. I just thought you were being an idiot again, and I guess I did go a bit overboard today, but it's just because I feel all messed up these days. I don't know what's wrong with me," Sakura said as she sat down at the ramen stand, "Can I get a double portion of pork ramen please, Teuchi-san?"

Naruto's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he heard Sakura ask for a double portion. She rarely even made it through a single portion before handing it over to her husband to finish. Even Teuchi and Ayame were surprised at Sakura's order but soon got to work preparing it.

Naruto looked up from his ramen and questioned his wife, "Sakura-chan, are you sure you're alright? You usually can't finish a single portion."

"I'm just really hungry today, ok? Chasing your idiot husband halfway across Konoha takes it out of you!" She huffed as she picked up her chopsticks and dove into her food.

Naruto couldn't even begin his food before Sakura had already finished her first and was onto a second. Naruto was about to enquire again if she really felt alright but thought better of it as he remembered the punch she had delivered to his head, and shivered involuntarily.

**Hokage Mansion, Konohagakure no Sato**

Later that day, Naruto had decided it was better to stay in the Hokage Mansion for the rest of the day at least. He was looking through reports from the still ongoing mission to find Uchiha Sasuke. Hatake Kakashi was the leader of the expedition with Hyuuga Neji, Maito Gai, Mitarashi Anko, Yamato, Aburame Shino and Sarutobi Konohamaru, as well as a company of ANBU's finest. The lead ninjas were all handpicked by Naruto apart from Anko who insisted on trailing the last student of her former master, and if Naruto was honest he wasn't going to say no to the crazy snake lady.

It seemed that they had picked up some sort of trail but it had faded into nothing but the odd encounter with former Otogakure nin or bandits. Kakashi had also put in a side note that Anko was chomping at the bit to find Sasuke just to piss of Orochimaru even though he was dead, Gai was getting on his nerves as usual and he would offer to do 14 S-class missions if Naruto would write a new _Icha Icha_ novel as he was in Kakashi's words 'the only person who could do Jiraya's great literary mind justice'.

Naruto sighed as he looked up at the three pictures he had in his office apart from those of the five previous Hokages, although three of those pictures were some of his favourites. The first was the one he had had since Team 7 was created, the picture of himself along with his teammates and their Sensei. It was well worn but it was rare it didn't bring a smile to the Hokage's face when he looked at it, although at times it had brought nothing but anguish, especially during the last War. The next one was of the Konoha Eleven after the restoration of Konoha following Pein's attack, where even Sai managed to smile like a human being for once. That photograph brought the feeling of pride to the front of his mind as it reminded him of how far all of his friends had came in such a short space of time. And then there was the last one...

Sakura hated it. But Naruto insisted on keeping it, and it had pride of place on his desk. It was of the day Naruto had proposed to Sakura.

###Flashback###

They were on a date in one of the fanciest restaurants in all of Konoha. Somehow Sakura had managed to get Naruto to not wear orange and they were eating a normal meal, i.e. not ramen.

"So do you like your meal Naruto?" Sakura asked as she finished her food, strangely before Naruto had.

"Ne... Ah... I guess it... It's okay?" Naruto stumbled with his words, causing Sakura to furrow her eyebrows in confusion.

"Is everything ok, Naruto?"

"_Crap, she's on to me..."_ "Ne, Sakura. Everything's fine, see," and he dived into his food with rather too much gusto, which led to bolognese sauce going over his girlfriend.

"NARUTO, YOU BAKA!" Naruto panicked as his girlfriend rose from the table and gathered chakra in her fist, ready to plant it upon the side of his head and reacted instinctively, dropping to one knee and pulling out a ring,

"Marry me?"

And with those two words she stopped dead, mouth agape, fist pulled back to hit him.

### Flashback ###

Tsunade had produced the photo at their wedding day. Sakura had insisted that all copies be destroyed but Naruto had secreted one for himself and placed it in his office when he had succeeded Tsunade, by which point Sakura had decided it was easier to leave it than try and destroy the probably millions of copies Naruto had told her about after she destroyed it the first hundred times.

This one just reminded how lucky he was and how much he loved everything about his wife. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her.

There was a knock at the door and Shizune entered the office, "Hokage-sama, the representative from the Civilian Council is here to see you."

Naruto rolled his eyes which earned him a glare from Shizune before waving to let the councillor in.

"_This is gonna be a long afternoon"_

**Uzu no Kuni**

Kakashi had had enough. He hated Naruto.

Why had he been stuck on a mission for months now with the crazy snake lady, the even crazier Gai, the silent Aburame, and the hyperactive Konohamaru?

He was just glad that Neji and Yamato were fairly sane albeit both had rather strong senses of duty and how a captain should be addressed. But what was Kakashi complaining about! He was lucky these days for even Naruto to call him sensei so for Neji, Yamato and the ANBU troop to address him properly was heaven in his eyes.

"Kakashi-taicho, it seems like there was a group of Oto-nin that passed through here about two days ago, should we track them?" Neji asked as they surveyed the clearing they were standing in.

"No, I highly doubt Sasuke will have anyone but his closest allies with him and this seems like far too many people. Shino, have your bugs gotten a trace of his chakra yet?" Kakashi asked the Aburame ninja.

Shino turned his head towards the forest canopy and then turned back to Kakashi, "There is a trace of chakra from an Uchiha about 13 miles northwest of here, but I cannot tell if it is Sasuke's or someone else. It is similar to Sasuke's but there is another chakra mixed into it."

Kakashi muttered a curse under his breath and then straightened ready to give an order, but before he could a laugh was choked out by Anko,

"Haha, so it could be that my old master didn't completely fuck up his mind. He still knows what to do with a woman!"

The group all halted in their tracks before they all laughed at the thought. Kakashi had to admit it, he had been thinking the same thing,

"And sure as hell he mustn't have messed with the body too much if he managed it too," Konohamaru added, suppressing his mirth enough to utter his sentence before falling back into a gale of laughter.

This sent the group back into another bout of laughter, although Shino didn't appear to be laughing, Kakashi could tell he appreciated the joke. Anko and Konohamaru were rolling on the floor in fits of giggles, while Neji, Yamato and a fair number of the ANBU were being a bit more restrained with their laughter. Even Gai was chuckling to himself at the joke.

"Well at least this is good for team morale, but if we really want to know if the Uchiha has spawned a brat or not we should get going, eh, my eternal rival?" Gai announced as Anko and Konohamaru picked their selves up off the ground.

"Yeah we should. Shino, you and Neji take point and lead the way. Konohamaru, Anko and Yamato, cover our rear. The rest of you spread out and let's move."

And so Konoha's Sasuke Location Team set out once again to try and discover the location of the last Uchiha male.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja**

Chronicles of the Rokudaime Hokage

Chapter 2

**Uzu no Kuni**

A scream of pain echoed throughout the cave as pants and grunts could be heard. The scream was coming from the mouth of a red haired woman who was heavily pregnant. The scream would probably have been heard for miles around if the dark brooding figure standing beside the woman hadn't cast an eavesdropping jutsu around the cave.

Unfortunately there was nothing he could do to block out the screams to himself. He watched as the old hag from the local village administered a cooling poultice to the woman's forehead before she turned to him and whispered, "She is in great agony and I am not sure if she will survive the trauma of childbirth. But the child is healthy, and will live."

"Hn... What do you need to save her?" the nin asked the old hag as he turned to leave the cave.

"I need a healer. I can do no more for her. Maybe you could take her to Konoha; I hear the Rokudaime's wife is the greatest healer of all time..."

At this moment a hand clamped around the old hag's neck and the man uttered a growl before he breathed, "Never mention Konoha and that pink haired slut again if you value your life hag. Now tell me where the nearest healer lives..."

Sharingan spinning, he released his grip on her neck as she gasped and pointed southeast, "That way... about 5 miles... the name of Kurohime..."

He turned and started out of the cave, but stopped before the exit and said, "Make sure they both survive until I return. If not then consider your life as forfeit..."

And with a swirl of black he was gone

**Uzumaki Residence, Konohagakure no Sato**

"Sakura-chan, you home?" Naruto called as he stepped into the house he and Sakura had bought when he became Hokage. It was a simple two storey house in a nice part of Konoha, with plenty of friendly neighbours, including a few of the Konoha 12.

Hearing no response, Naruto smiled and plopped himself down on the comfy sofa in the living room before pulling out a scroll he had taken from the archives about the history of the Sage of the Six Paths, _'Nothing like a bit of light reading before dinner!'_

But no sooner had Naruto opened the scroll and found his place again, Sakura came through the doorway with the shopping, "Naruto-baka get up and give me a hand!"

"Ne Sakura, I just got home!" He moaned as he sat up looking over at his wife, which made him see the angry look on her face, which soon led to him bolting off the sofa and into the kitchen to help her, "So how was your day, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura _humph_ed before turning to face her husband, "Well I had to deal with a major pain in the backside today. An idiot from the Civilian Council came round today claiming that he had the right to audit all ninja activity in the village and he wanted me to bring him all the files on any injured ninja in the past two years. Then he tells me that I have to explain every treatment I've given and every diagnosis I've made..." Sakura growled in anger, "I was this close to sending **him** to ICU..."

"Wait was this Shinso Kaien, the representative from the Merchants' Guild?" Naruto inquired.

Sakura paused as she was putting an instant ramen packet in the cupboard, "No, his name was Ichimori Zanben, but he was from the Merchants' Guild. Why?"

"I had a long and boring talk today from Shinso about how the peace was making ninjas less profitable and how the Hokage and the Elders should no longer control Konoha, but the Civilian Council instead. And then this guy from the Merchants' Guild comes in asking about ninja injury rates and everything. Sounds way too coincidental to me," Naruto scratched his chin as he wondered why the Civilian Council was trying to usurp the ninjas now, when the greatest threat to Konoha was still at large.

"Well forget about that for now. I've been talking to Ayame and she's given me a new recipe to try out. You want some?" Sakura motioned to the piece of paper in her hand. Naruto simply smiled with his trademark grin, the same one that was carved onto the Hokage Mountain,

"Hell yeah!"

**Hokage's Office, Konohagakure no Sato**

_Two weeks later_

'_It's times like these that I realise why Obaa-san drank so much'_ Naruto mused as he sat in his office listening to yet another speech from an 'impassioned member of the Konoha public' about how in the past five years of peace, the ninja of Konoha had made less and less money and now the merchants were the main contributors of Konoha's wealth, and about how the 'right and just thing' would be to hand total control over to the Civilian Council, which surprise, surprise was controlled mainly by the merchants.

Unfortunately for these 'impassioned citizens', the Rokudaime Hokage knew fine well that the peace was not as stable as many thought and that many nukenin still roamed the wastelands and badlands waiting for a sign of weakness from the Hidden Villages. Not only that but Konoha had an especially dangerous enemy still hiding, Uchiha Sasuke, the last of the Uchiha and one of only two wielders of the Sharingan.

"I am afraid, Tokutarou-dono that I cannot fulfil your request at this moment in time. Not only is Uchiha Sasuke still at large but any sign of weakness in Konohagakure no Sato will ultimately lead to the end of the peace I and many others worked so hard for. Someday I wish that the person I hand over Konoha to will not have to lead it into war but I cannot be certain of that now. Thank you for your time. Now if you will excuse me, I have a meeting with the Shinobi Council in Tetsu no Kuni and I must prepare for it," Naruto ushered the man out and signalled to Shizune that he was taking no more meetings today, especially from 'esteemed members of the Civilian Council'.

Naruto wondered if the Old Man or Obaa-san ever had to deal with any of this sort of thing. Then he thought about the Kyuubi or about Sasuke's abandonment of the village, _'Hmm guess I'm not the only one who has to deal with stubborn fools with more money than sense.'_

Naruto closed the window behind him before setting off home to ready his things for the trip to Tetsu no Kuni. The annual Shinobi Council summit had been in place since that fateful winter after the defeat of Pein and the beginning of the Fourth Great Shinobi War. Now it was mostly a formality and a place where the leaders of the Hidden Villages could discuss any problems they were having with nukenin etc.

Naruto would be going along with a pair of bodyguards and his best advisor. The advisor would be Nara Shikamaru, Konoha's Lazy Genius, whose battle plans had earned him the title of Shadow General, while the two guards would be Akamichi Chouji and Inuzuka Kiba, both of whom were skilled warriors, the Akamichi for his fearlessness in battle and his immense strength and the Inuzuka for his tracking ability and his strength when battling with his trusty partner Akamaru.

Usually the Hokage leaving would be cause to recall all Jonin and Tokubetsu Jonin back to the village to protect it, but since the Hidden Villages were at peace there was no need for such measures. Instead a restriction was placed on all the senior ANBU and Jonin in the village not to leave it, and the Chunin were drafted in for guard duty.

It helped when the Godaime Hokage still resided in Konoha too...

And as Naruto returned home from the Hokage Mansion he realised that she had come to visit her former student, and now equal, in Naruto's house.

"Oh man, Obaa-san's gonna be on my case now," Naruto thought out loud as he walked up the path to his front door. Last time Tsunade had 'called round' she had been berating Naruto about not giving her a 'grandson'. Even if she wasn't his biological grandmother she still thought of him as a son of sorts, and Sakura as a daughter and so she felt it necessary to tell him to 'get his act together and gimme a grandson!'

Inside however Sakura and Tsunade were having a conversation about that very such topic.

"You know Sakura-chan, you're looking a bit heavier than last time I saw you. Have you been eating too much?" Tsunade said, ignoring the vein that popped out on her former student's sizeable forehead. Tsunade and Sakura knew only three people could get away with saying that to her; Ino, Shizune and Tsunade herself. Sakura turned to her shishou and humpfed,

"Well I've not been feeling well lately and I'm always hungry so it's probably just that..."

Suddenly both women gasped, having just had the exact same thought rush through their heads. For medic nins they sure could be dense at times.

"You don't think..." Sakura started as she paled visibly.

"Well if the glove fits..." Tsunade shrugged, but just as she was about to enquire about other symptoms Naruto burst through the door happily,

"I'm home! And damn that smells great Sakura-chan! Hey Obaa-chan how you been? And before you start going on about 'grandkids' not tonight. We'll wait until we're ready, ne Sakura?"

Sakura paled even more, as Tsunade suppressed a chuckle, before she turned to Naruto and cracked him around the head, "Baka Naruto. Don't come into the house shouting like that! The whole neighbourhood must have heard you! Just for that, no ramen tonight!"

Naruto's face paled and he put on the most ridiculous puppy-dog eyes while begging on his knees in front of Sakura, "Please Sakura, anything but that. I'll do housework, I'll mow the lawn, and I'll even burn the only copy of Icha Icha Celebration. Just don't take away my Ramen..."

Somewhere, deep in Uzu no Kuni, Kakashi's head jerked towards Konoha and a shiver burnt its way down his spine, _'My Icha Icha senses are tingling'_

Sakura tried to maintain a straight face but soon broke out in giggles as she looked at Naruto's hangdog look. Tsunade was already in gales of laughter at the antics of the pair, _'They're just like Minato and Kushina. She always did have him wrapped around her little finger, but he always had ways around it...'_

"Fine Naruto, you can have some ramen tonight. But next time be a bit more civilised!"

He grinned that same indescribable grin and sat down at the table next to Tsunade as Sakura went and got his dinner, "So what brings you over Obaa-chan?"

"What? Can't I visit my favourite student and my favourite knuckleheaded idiot, I mean Hokage," she winked as Naruto narrowed his eyes at her remark, "Before he goes off to Tetsu no Kuni."

"Hehe I suppose. It's not like it's my first time going Baa-chan."

"No but something feels different this time. Is this not the first time you're going to meet the new Tsuchikage?" She asked, a hint of worry creeping into her voice.

"Yeah, old Onoki passed on the title about nine months ago, about time if you ask me. He was basically using Akatsuchi as a crutch last time I saw him. I haven't heard much about this new guy but from what Gaara and É have told me he's a soldier from the Third and Fourth Shinobi Wars, and he's been doing a good job so far."

"Onoki was using Akatsuchi as a crutch when I first went to the council so that's not much different! But what is the new Tsuchikage going to say when he sees the Yondaime reborn walk in..."

Naruto faltered for a moment. Did he really look that much like his dad? He guessed that with the way he had taken to growing out his hair and wearing a cloak, albeit an orange one with black flames licking at the base of it, he did look more and more like the fabled Yellow Flash of Konoha. But for all his likeness to his father, he was Kushina's child too. The playful, yet serious nature and the piercing eyes said it all, as well as the love for ramen, _'Thinking back to it I'm just like both of them, although I did follow Mom's advice on what kind of girl to marry...'_

Just then Sakura re-entered with three hot steaming bowls of pork ramen and Naruto smiled, "Doesn't matter Baa-chan. He can rant and rave all he wants about Konoha's Yellow Flash. I'm Konoha's Orange Hokage and I'll protect everything that I love with all my strength. That's my _nindo, Dattebayo!"_

Tsunade grinned before settling down for her meal, _'That was the same look Minato and Jiraya used to have before they went off and did something stupid. Let's hope Naruto doesn't make the same mistake as they did...'_


End file.
